The Ties that Bind
by Eeni
Summary: A short one-shot that explores the gundam pilots' strong bonds with one another. It's always the least likely of things that helps build a friendship.


**Disclaimer**: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of the characters… this is just another fan based story that has come about due to my love of the plot-hole riddled anime from the mid-90s. ENJOY!

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Two sets of eyes rose instantly at the sound of the pressurized door hissing open. Neither person said a word as the third in their party was forcefully shoved forward.

"You're welcomed!" Duo cried out as he fumbled into the makeshift prison, the door instantly closing behind him. His escorts weren't allowed to speak to him or the other two prisoners, but that never stopped him from trying to spark up a conversation with his jailers. He sighed rather disappointed, but easily shrugged his dissatisfaction away. They'll be back and he'll try his luck again then. A lopsided grin graced his lips as he moved forward towards one of the bunk beds, plopping down next to the friendlier of his cellmates.

Heero continued to glare at the door as the bed slightly dipped to his right. "Anything new?" he asked in that deadpan way of his.

"Nada," the braided youth began getting comfortable in the most unusual way. He laid down across the width of the single sized bed, swinging his legs up against the wall while allowing his head to hang off the edge of the mattress, his long hair pooling beneath on the floor. His blue eyes darted to the final member of the prison cell, another Asian boy whose eyes were as dark as the void of space. "How you two been holding up?"

WuFei snorted at the feeble attempt for friendly conversation, his dark eyes returning to the door.

Duo's brow furrowed. He was also determined to get this other boy to talk. After all, they were comrades-in-arms. Unfortunately for the bright young man, he had only gotten a death glare that would have killed a lesser man and what sounded like an angry rebuttal spoken in a language he didn't understand.

He returned his attention to the door as the other two had. The silence growing, lasting for what felt like an eternity to young man. "How'd you get caught up piloting a gundam?" He didn't direct the question to anyone in particular.

Dark blue eyes shifted down to greet lighter orbs, but nothing was spoken. Heero's pricing gaze was drilling into him, his expression unchanging. "I was picked up off the streets."

Duo smiled. "Same here. Sort of… I broke into a place for food and found myself with a crazy engineer and gang. Although I wasn't the original pilot," he confessed.

Heero's brow slightly rose.

"I was the backup," Duo read the questioning look. "You know, in case something happened to the original pilot. Then he flaked a few months before Operation M and I got bumped up. Don't know what happed to that guy, but I'm pretty sure he ended up in some gutter. That's the way the Professor rolls."

"Doctor J is the same," Heero offered as he recalled an instance of desertion which ended with the deaths of two mechanics.

"Secrecy is of the utmost importance," WuFei interrupted sternly. "You seem to be lacking much more than that."

Duo frowned as that last part was directed at him. "What does it matter? We're being used as guinea pigs by a bunch of self-righteous idiots. It's not like they're even bothering to get us to divulge any information about our gundams so that they could build some of their own. If anything, some stupid higher-up in tights thinks he can build something better than our suits. As if!"

Heero's lips curled slightly at that last statement. Even if the gundams' engineers were being held captive and forced to construct new model mobile suits, he was certain that they wouldn't create anything superior to the sophistication of the five gundams. Especially if O.Z. only wanted something that could be easily mass produced like Leos. On top of that, the machine would only be as good as the pilot in the cockpit, and O.Z. hardly has any aces in their ranks. No, those new suits were destined to failure.

"So… What did the Alliance do to wrong you guys?" Duo started up again.

Heero's cynical smile grew by a fraction of a centimeter. The poor guy was genuinely trying to get to know his fellow pilots. Even when they had been in school for that small amount of time together, Duo had tried to get to know the Wing's pilot. Heero, of course, had never spoken more than was required and left the Deathscythe's pilot hanging on many an occasion.

"They killed my mentor," he finally answered. Who knows how many more hours of impromptu interrogation they would have to sit through if someone didn't give in to the braided boy's questioning. And WuFei was certainly not going to be the one to give up any of his secrets so readily.

The sudden response elicited a surprised look on Duo's behalf. "Sorry to hear that…"

"I then proceeded to destroy one of their communication towers."

A cocky grin widened the braided boy's features. He'd have to take extra care not to cross this guy. It wouldn't be a wise thing to do, even if it was jokingly.

"Genocide."

Two heads snapped in unison towards the boy across the small aisle. Had they not been isolated in such quiet quarters, neither would have heard the faint voice. The Asian boy remained silent on the bottom bunk opposite the two pilots. His dark eyes still fixed to the door that would only open to take one of them away for more simulated flights the in new machines.

The room grew uncomfortably silent. It was obvious that WuFei did not intend to give any more information, but that single word response had grabbed hold of the other two pilot's attention. The curiosity to the meaning behind such an answer was starting to peak in each boy.

"I take it they didn't succeed?" Duo drew out the question.

WuFei's eyes narrowed dangerously. For a split second Duo was grateful that even while in their cell their captors had decided to keep all three of them handcuffed. Not that that would have prevented WuFei from killing him had he wanted to, but it would have certainly slowed him down. Perhaps this time he really shouldn't be nosing into other's business. Still the thirst to know his companion's background gnawed at him. He felt confident that if he could find the right words he would be able to draw out that precious information from the lonesome pilot.

"I don't recall the Alliance ever committing an act that would be considered genocide," Heero spoke before any plan formulated in Duo's mind.

It was WuFei's turn to wear the cynical smile. He chuckled softly as he turned to face his allies. "They did not succeed," his dark eyes locked onto Duo for a moment before shifting up towards the other pilot. "The Alliance base on my home colony houses the largest training facility of all the clusters. They often conduct mock battles as part of training for new pilots. At least that is what is on the official records. Last year, one of those battles was staged rather close to where my gundam was being constructed. We didn't know what was happening, so we assumed that we had been discovered and were under attack. Nataku went out to protect us. Said simulation turned into a real battle and the Alliance and O.Z. soldiers involved were disposed of. During the fight, I had noticed a few suits attaching something to the colony wall. " WuFei bit down on his lip for a moment as he rested his head against the wall behind him, gathering his thoughts.

"After the horrible debacle I went out with a few others to investigate what was really happening. We retrieved a cylinder that was left behind. Master O took samples and discovered that it was an airborne pathogen, something quite similar to Tuberculosis but worst. It was a strange virus that developed rather slowly, but clung to the host fiercely." WuFei lifted his eyes to the ceiling, searching aimlessly. "The first symptoms would make you think that you just had the common flu. But over time, the symptoms worsen. Fevers, soreness all over the body, and difficulty in breathing, Like Tuberculosis, the virus attacks mainly the lungs, but there's no bloody sputum. Instead, the lungs get filled with this clear, yellowish fluid making it very difficult to breath. You could say that it's more like drowning. It's a sick and twisted way of dying. I wouldn't wish it on my enemies."

The room was silent as the boy finished his short narrative, venom dripping from each word he spoke. "They were trying to release it through the colony's air filtration system. They were going to gas my home and make it look like a viral outbreak."

The Asian boy's dark eyes drifted back towards the other occupants of the room. For a second, he thought he could see pity in Heero's deep eyes. A soft nod was the only thing the Wing's pilot could offer as a condolence. Truly, the many factions on Earth thought very little of those who chose to make space their home.

A gawking look on WuFei's features drew Heero's attention towards Duo. The braided boy had rolled over onto his side midway through WuFei's story and was now propped up on an elbow next to him. His large eyes were glassy as they brimmed with tears. His bottom lip quivered as the color drained from his face.

"Duo?" Heero questioned.

The Deathscythe's pilot retreated into the corner of the bed, pulling his knees up to his chest and burying his face into the boney appendages. His cuffed hands fisted, pulling at the fabric of his pants. He was murmuring into his knees. When at last he finally lifted his head, his eyes were dark and full of rage as tears rolled down his pale face. "Those sons of bithches!" he hissed between clenched teeth. "I'll kill them all!"

WuFei and Heero exchanged a questioning glance.

Duo caught the exchange. "When I was little, I ran with a group of orphans. A few of the older boys broke into an Alliance shipping container looking for food. They made a mistake and ended up in a medical container. They knocked over some cylinders, breaking them and essentially gassing themselves. A few days later, they had what we thought was the flu… but they kept coughing up this viscous, water-like substance. It wasn't mucus. We didn't know what it was. It was like water… they said they couldn't breathe, that it felt like they were drowning… they couldn't breathe…" His jaw clenched tightly as a few more tears rolled down his cheek. "It was horribly contagious, most of the people on the colony ended up infected. The colony way quickly quarantined. Alliance medics were brought in. They set up medical centers to get checked out and came up with a cure, but the bastards where selling it!"

"The Colony Cold…" Heero recognized the story. He remembered when the virus had fist broken out. There was indeed a quarantine in effect and travel between colonies had been restricted for a long time. He recalled being taken to be immunized in order to continue traveling with Odin. The man couldn't afford to sit in one place for too long, and if a simple vaccine was all he needed in order to be mobile then he would obtain it one way or another.

"We couldn't afford it. Hell, we couldn't even buy a fuckin' piece of bread! We couldn't steal it either," Duo's shaky voice continued. "After a while everyone died. Solo and Eliwood and Eeni and the lil kids. They couldn't breathe. They all died…" Duo clung to his knees tightly remembering his little family's last moments. He shut his eyes fighting the images out of his head.

"The Colony Cold was a mutation of the common flu," WuFei spoke up. "What we found attached to my home colony was an engineered virus which was made to kill."

Duo glared up at the other pilot. "Ever hear of a flu that kills _everyone_ it infects?" he sneered. "Or a flu that fills your lungs with liquid instead of mucus for that matter? I sure as hell haven't."

"You think they're one in the same?" Heero questioned hesitantly.

The room grew deadly silent as the three occupants eyed one another nervously. The implications of said statement were dire to say the least. If indeed the Colony Cold of L-2 and the near gassing of WuFei's home colony were linked by that single virus, then that would mean that someone within the Alliance Military had been developing a chemical agent and testing it on colonist for years. But for what purpose? For how long had they been developing this virus? How many times had it been released into the controlled environments of space? Was it for genocide? A means to control the colonies? Who exactly was behind it?

"There has to be records somewhere," WuFei barely whispered as he reasoned more to himself. His eyes briefly meet the other two's, each nodding in silent agreement. Somewhere within the Alliance's records there would have to be some, at the very least, small mention of this mystery virus.

"It would probably have a harmless sounding code name," Heero voiced his opinion. "Something that can easily be overlooked. Probably something so small that only a handful of people are aware of its existence."

"God have mercy on them if I find out this is all true," Duo seethed, brushing his tears off the best he could on his shoulder.

The door hissed open once more, an O.Z. officer stepped forward as two other armed officers remained at the door. "Pilot-05." The organization was hell bent on breaking each and every one of the gundam pilots by any means necessary. They had already failed in the realms of physical abuse, denying them sleep, and practically starving them. Referring to them by a designated number rather than a name seemed to be the bottom of the barrel, but they were sticking to it.

WuFei huffed at the childish attempt. He had been called worst before. Besides, being referred to as a number was the least of his worries at the moment.

The young pilot was escorted to a locker room at the end of the hallway. He was ushered inside as the two armed officers remained posted at the door. The officer who had called him out proceeded to uncuff the prisoner as he reminded the young man to not try anything stupid, the door closing behind the pair halfway through the young officer's stern warning.

"I need a favor," WuFei interrupted his captor's memorized speech once the door had sealed shut behind them. There was no point in keeping up the charade behind closed doors. "Information about the Colony Cold of L-2 and a botched fight simulation in L-5's A0206 Colony during late March of A.C. 194. Anything that could link the two together."

The young officer's brow rose guessingly. "I'll look into it," Trowa responded softly.

"Thank you," WuFei began to change into his flight suit. He didn't realize it at the moment, but it would be a long time before anything would come to light.

The End

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A/N: Had this floating around on my computer for over three years, that was fun to write and I hope you all enjoyed it ^_^


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